How to make SkyConnect find my lamps?

[thany (Martijn Saly)]

“Searching for Zigbee devices…”

I thought it was going to be straight forward, but I was a bit too optimistic.

I have dozens of lamps in my house, all working perfectly fine through the Hue bridge (well, Philips’ definition of perfectly fine) and the SkyConnect sees exactly none of them. I guess as soon as I figure what it requires me to do, I can gradually move my zigbee network over to HA.

One lamp in particular I would expect it to find, because it is a mere 60cm away from the SkyConnect stick.

It also says “Make sure your devices are in pairing mode” which is strange to me, because lamps do not have something like that, afaik. Could this web interface not be a little bit more on the descriptive side, like explain what to do for some of the most popular devices?

For now though, I just need some help getting this lamp to work. Once done, I can validate if HA has been the right choice for my lighting.

So TLDR: what should I do?

EDIT: just checked, it’s on the correct channel. I thought it would auto-detect the channel or something, but it’s actually just on the correct one. Channel 20, if you must know.

[Stiltjack]

Have you deleted it from the Hue app? When you do it should go into pairing mode.

Migrating from a Philips Hue Bridge to the ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration

Don’t forget that the first post in a community guide is a wiki - feel free to add to it or correct it. This guide was written and tested these versions but should also work similarly with later versions: Home Assistant 2023.8.4 Supervisor 2023.09.2 Operating System 10.5 Frontend 20230911.0 - latest Background Until recently Philips Hue devices have been controlled locally through a bridge, but the company has now started asking users to open a cloud account, which will ultimately hold det…

[thany (Martijn Saly)]

That was it. At least for one of the lamps. It’s a bit of a bummer, tbh, because it means it’s a more-or-less permanent action. Deleting them from the Hue bridge means they are gone from it, so I am going to have to be very certain about going all the way with HA.

Kinda makes sense that a lamp can only connect with one bridge at a time, but still a letdown (from the zigbee protocol that is).

It would be nice if the “looking for devices” screen could be slightly more helpful.

[Hedda]

@thany

Kinda makes sense that a lamp can only connect with one bridge at a time, but still a letdown (from the zigbee protocol that is).

It would be nice if the “looking for devices” screen could be slightly more helpful.

Suggest you read and try to follow ZHA integration which should hopefully cover all basic functionality:

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha

If something is missing from those documentations (which I am sure there is) then post feedback here:

https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io/issues

@thany

It’s a bit of a bummer, tbh, because it means it’s a more-or-less permanent action. Deleting them from the Hue bridge means they are gone from it, so I am going to have to be very certain about going all the way with HA.

Yes any Zigbee device can only be connected to a single Zigbee Coordinator/Network, and a Zigbee Gateway can only have a single Zigbee Coordinator/Network, those are limitations in the Zigbee specs.

Also note that if you forget to remove a lightbulb device from the Philips Hue Bridge/App the proper way then you will manufacture force a factory reset to put it into pairning/joining mode, see → Zigbee Home Automation - Home Assistant

Regardless, highly recommend you also read these to get a better understanding of how Zigbee works:

Zigbee buyer's guide

Don’t forget that the first post in a community guide is a wiki - feel free to add to it or correct it. This guide was written with reference to: Core 2023.11.3 Supervisor 2023.11.6 Operating System 11.2 Frontend 20231030.2 Summary This post is aimed at newcomers to Zigbee - and possibly to Home Assistant - who have stumbled into the wild west of Zigbee devices and manufacturers. It does not recommend particular products; instead it advocates a cautious approach to buying. When it comes t…

Migrating from a Philips Hue Bridge to the ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration

Don’t forget that the first post in a community guide is a wiki - feel free to add to it or correct it. This guide was written and tested these versions but should also work similarly with later versions: Home Assistant 2023.8.4 Supervisor 2023.09.2 Operating System 10.5 Frontend 20230911.0 - latest Background Until recently Philips Hue devices have been controlled locally through a bridge, but the company has now started asking users to open a cloud account, which will ultimately hold det…

Not many people know that... A random collection of Zigbee trivia

Don’t forget that the first post in a community guide is a wiki - feel free to add to it or correct it. This guide was written with reference to: Core 2023.12.3 Supervisor 2023.11.6 Operating System 11.2 Frontend 20231208.2 Some subjects come up quite a lot... That map [That map...] The ZHA “network visualisation” was originally a dashboard card. It was absorbed into ZHA and the card is now deprecated, but the repository is still on Github. The lines on the map show every route between …

A to Zig - a Zigbee glossary

Don’t forget that the first post in a community guide is a wiki - feel free to add to it or correct it. This guide was written with reference to: Home Assistant 2023.9.3 Supervisor 2023.10.0 Operating System 10.5 Frontend 20230911.0 - latest Thanks to: zigpy project’s ZHA Device Handlers readme. Silicon Labs Zigbee knowledge base. HA docs. Zigbee Home Automation - Home Assistant Zigbee is a low power radio protocol which relies on mesh networking to overcome the limitations of small, …

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Who is this guide for? I have tried to make this guide to be a comprehensive collection of the most basic yet essential tips with a set of actions and best practice steps that should be applicable to all types of Zigbee setups, regardless of what type of Zigbee adapter/gateway/hub/bridge/devices that you are using, however, it has been written with a point-of-view in mind of Zigbee solutions that use a Zigbee Coordinator adapter locally via USB dongle/stick or remotely using a serial server ove…